The things you own end up owning you

“The things you own end up owning you. It’s only after you lose everything that you’re free to do anything.” — Tyler Durden, Fight Club. Maybe a bit on the extreme side, there is also a lot of truth in that statement.

I moved so often in the past that I purged large parts of my belongings regularly anyways. In particular, when moving to Atlanta all my stuff went through the New York port when Sandy hit. I ended up essentially losing all my belongings. So I have some hands-on experience with the latter part of the quote… However, now that I have been staying in Atlanta for a while, I started to accumulate possession (and especially photographic gear) and found myself often meditating about gear (among other possessions): which camera to take… wouldn’t it have been better to take a different camera…

So I decided to leave all my gear packed away for some time to free myself from being owned, only using my iphone for photography. I have been doing this for a few weeks now (with minor exceptions). It is liberating and challenging at the same time. In fact, it has an almost film-like quality in terms of shooting – not in terms of the actual output of course, but in terms of minimalism. I found it very inspiring so far, forcing you to look for different things, due to the obvious limitations of the tool.

So here are a few shots of mine from my route to minimalism (all shot with an iphone). You can follow my route to minimalism here on vsco grid. I am also considering to make a book out of this special journey…

There seems to be a trend towards minimalism in general – not so clear where this comes from. I read an interesting article a few days ago in the telegraph on the “pay as you live” generation, which nicely summarized the challenges etc of an international life-style (see also the minimalists).

Have a nice memorial day weekend — TSJ.

Follow me on @terencesjones or facebook for more updates.

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The first one was taken at Octane in Grant Park – yes I am addicted to that place. Great coffee and I love the ambiance of the place. Maybe you can see why.

I had to take a coffee shot, because everybody does… this one was taken at the dancing goats at the Poncey City Market.

Don’t remember where I took this one – the hand on the wall caught my eye and I was thinking, how the hell does a print of a hand get there…

Skate Park on the Belt Line – not completely crappy for a phone. I liked the silhouette of the skater together with the Atlanta skyline (att and boa buildings) in the background.